Pope John XXIII's 1963 encyclical Pacem in Terris radically affected Catholic social teaching not only on war and peace, but on church-state relations, women's rights, religious freedom, international relations and other major issues.
By his sheer "simplicity of life," Pope Francis has set a new tone for the Roman Curia, African Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, told NCR April 10 in an interview in Washington.
Kansas lawmakers passed a bill declaring that life begins "at fertilization" and Virginia gave its approval on new regulations for abortion clinics.
A Catholic Korean War chaplain who selflessly pulled wounded men from enemy fire was honored posthumously with the Medal of Honor, the highest military honor, Thursday.
A White House advisory council of religious leaders called for a global fund to address human trafficking and urged a new labeling system to help identify consumer goods that were not created with slave labor.
With a 36-page report released Wednesday, the President's Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships hopes to build awareness of the estimated 21 million people worldwide who are subjected to sexual exploitation or forced labor.
Days before the Senate began debate over gun-control legislation, Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, Calif., urged senators to support a bill that "builds a culture of life by promoting policies that reduce gun violence and saves people's lives in homes and communities."
Blaire, head of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, said in a letter to Senate members Monday that one bill, S. 649, was "a positive step in the right direction."
The bill requires universal background checks for all gun buys and makes gun trafficking a federal crime.
President Barack Obama on Thursday awarded the Medal of Honor to famed Korean War chaplain Fr. Emil Kapaun, presenting it to the priest's nephew, Ray Kapaun, almost 22,604 days after his uncle's death in a prisoner of war camp.
"He should have got it long time ago," Joe Ramirez, a war veteran, told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from Houston. Kapaun baptized Ramirez on July 19, 1950, the day after their regiment landed in Korea.
"He deserves about three or four of them," another soldier friend of the priest, Herbert Miller, told CNS.
From across the country, by bus, plane and train, tens of thousands of people calling for comprehensive immigration reform covered the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, in one of more than a dozen similar events taking place around the United States.
Cries of: "Si, se puede," Spanish for "yes, we can," and "What do we want? Citizenship. When do we want it? Now!" rose from the crowd in Washington.
The conferences, held by The Catholic University of America and Georgetown University, celebrate the 50th anniversary of the encyclical on peace and justice.
A seminary rector in Nebraska will succeed Archbishop Samuel Aquila in Fargo, N.D. Aquila was named to head the Denver archdiocese last year.
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